Some Cockatoos Love Condiments, Though Their Flavor Combos Are Questionable

The idea for the study came about by chance; on a November morning in 2022, researchers at the Goffin lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, noticed two of the birds dunking their breakfast of cooked potato into some blueberry-flavored soy yogurt.

Previously, the lab had discovered that some cockatoos like their snacks soggy, soaking dry rusk in water probably to change its texture – similar to how some humans enjoy dunking a cheeky biscuit or three into a cup of tea.

What was the reason for dunking in yogurt this time around? Perhaps it was for flavor, the researchers theorized, though there was only one existing observational study from the 1960s that suggested animals liked to add flavor to their food, and that was in Japanese macaques.

To find out more, the team observed 18 cockatoos from the lab eating breakfast on another 14 occasions, during which the birds were presented with their food bowl and three dunking options: fresh water, blueberry soy yogurt, and neutral soy yogurt as a control.

Their observations revealed that nine out of the 18 cockatoos dunked their food into yogurt. “Not all cockatoos in our group, however, showed this dipping of their food,” said study co-author Jeroen Zewald in a statement. “That probably means this is a new invention by the cockatoos that is not part of their normal behaviour.”

The birds also never dunked their food into water, which ruled out that they were doing it for soaking purposes.

On the other hand, there were multiple indicators that they were dipping to add flavor. The birds showed a preference for the blueberry yogurt over the neutral-flavored option, and also only dunked certain foods in it; they weren’t fans of yogurt-coated cauliflower or carrot, for example, but loved rolling a bit of pasta around in it. 

In fact, “they usually started eating the yogurt-covered parts of the food, sometimes even re-dunking it after most yogurt was gone,” the authors note. We’ve all been there – some chips just aren’t the same without the dip.

And so, after eliminating other reasons based on their observations, the researchers concluded that the cockatoos were dunking to add some pizazz to their food.

“Although we normally challenge our cockatoos by giving them a problem and then observing how they solve it, this time the cockatoos showed that they had discovered solutions to problems that we had not even thought of,” said study co-author Alice Auersperg. “Apparently, their food wasn’t tasty enough.”

Even though their wild counterparts have not been seen dipping their food in liquids, it’s not necessarily a huge surprise that this behavior has developed in the lab’s cockatoos – these birds are super smart.

“These cockatoos are known for using tools in innovative ways in the wild. For example, they make sharp wooden objects from tree branches to open hard-shelled fruits,” explained Auersperg. “These kinds of discoveries in tool use and food preparation show us how flexible, innovative, and curious these animals are.”

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.